NEW PLANS FOR IMAGINATION?

Living in Delaware her whole life, Jessica did not know much about Walt Disney World until she went at 13 years old. That initial trip, though, got her hooked on the magic. As the years went on, she did everything she could to learn more about Disney (including watching documentaries and reading books). She did not know many people that shared her passion until she discovered the wonders of the internet and the Disney community found on it. She has gotten involved with as many Disney projects as she can, including writing the weekly news articles for The Disney Driven Life and writing for her own blog, The True Disney Fan. Jessica has also taken on a position with Celebrations Magazine, working the social media aspects of the publication. Through all these platforms, Jessica strives to bring as much Disney magic as possible into her everyday life, and she works to share it with everyone she meets!

The word around the Internet this past week is that Kodak, the longtime sponsor of The Imagination Pavilion in Epcot, has pulled out and is no longer the sponsor. There are several sites that say that this has been confirmed by Kodak and the sponsorship ended within the last few months. We have already noticed that some of the signage for the pavilion has been taken down, including the Kodak sign on the park map and the mentions of it in the What If? Labs. There have also been several construction walls put up in the Labs.

This lack of sponsorship brings up several questions, mainly what is to become of the Imagination Pavilion? I think we can safely say that it will not be abandoned like Wonders of Life, at least for the time being, because of Captain EO being in the theater. What happens after that though? Will Disney get a new sponsor? Would a sponsor even spend money on the pavilion? It is not the most popular pavilion in Epcot for sure. Will the second floor of the pavilion be reopened for guest use? It is no longer needed as the Kodak employee lounge. Will the ride stay the same, will they change it? Some internet sites are actually predicting the return of Dreamfinder to the pavilion! None of this, of course, can be confirmed, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on for further developments!

Perhaps they pulled out due to Captain EO? The whole process of Disney bringing back that show seems to have been driven by Disney management, so it makes me wonder if Kodak simply said, “if you’re going to pull an attraction that we helped pay for and put in another/older without our input, then we will not support it”. I would think from a corporate stand point it wouldn’t make sense either to pay for something to be re-developed that was a previous attraction. Perhaps, when EO is done, they may re-negotiate a new contract, but I can see this line of thought as very real.

Jen L. in GA (NDM#113)

I can’t say that anything would be better than what we have because I remember the disaster known as Journey Into Your Imagination. Still, there are many things that would be much better than what we have now. The theme of Future World may be technology, but with every attraction also mentioning new ideas the underlying theme of Future World is definitely imagination. This attraction should be stellar, amazing, epic. I hope that it gets all of the attention it deserves!